As for melting point, you could switch over to carbon aerogels and get them to last at around 2000 F degrees, but there are additional costs and downsides, and few scientific applications at this point.

The brittleness seems like it would matter til you think about the number of modern applications that use fiberglass or styrofoam… particularly since there are already companies that stitch the stuff into blankets.

It’ll come around eventually, but it’s a matter of time. The infrastructure just can’t appear outta nowhere.

I wonder if it is strong enough to make exhaust manifolds out of it.

Genius. Pure genius. I would pay $20 for an aerogel beer cooler. My guess is the current rate would be around $500.

I think the issue is the brittleness. Solve that and economies of scale will do the rest.

Except for the Internet, the future is not what I thought it might be. No rocketcars. This is a huge disappointment. But even if you could afford one and they actually worked, they would probably harm the planet.

At least we have the Inter-tubes.

Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars.

The problem isn’t thinking up new and exciting things to do with the stuff, it’s making it cheap enough to make things practical. It’s sorta like this- diamond is the very best heat sink material around. It’s much better at conducting heat that copper, silver or aluminum. Although we can make diamonds in a lab, don’t expect to have a synthetic diamond CPU heat sink in your computer anytime soon.

So here is where you can score some aerogel for yourself. Check out the prices for small scrap pieces and then don’t trample me on your way out the door to rush and buy enough to make a wrap-around beer cooler.